


something blue

by altoverse



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, don't come at me for his name i don't know it, duke gautier why do u have a tree so close to your house wall, jeralt is famous from his time in the knights of seiros, let's pretend that sylvainbro is Cool and Good for once, so it's not unusual for noble families to hire him and his mercenaries, sylvain's older bro is also here, this is before he got disowned obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 04:50:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19863772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altoverse/pseuds/altoverse
Summary: alternatively: felix's man bun origin story ft tiny byleth + blue lions childhood gangpost release ninja edit: i am going to Ignore canon and say that sylvains older brother was not in fact a dick at first. it makes the angst hit harder





	something blue

Byleth clutched at her father’s pant leg, looking up at the stern, orange-haired man speaking with him.

“Jeralt, I must thank you for coming on such short notice, as my guards have come down with a rather bad bout of food poisoning. Damn Duscurians, selling us bad meat.”

“Well, I certainly hope they recover quickly. You wanted me and my men to guard your home’s south exit?”

“Yes, and I will pay you an extra thousand gold to keep quiet about anything you see on the inside.”

“You have nothing to worry about, Duke Gautier. Some mercenary bands have a reputation of being rather loose-tongued about their employers, but I can assure you my men will do nothing of the sort.”

“I would expect nothing less from a man of your renown, Jeralt. It should only be for a few days – the rest of my soldiers should arrive home from battle by the end of the week.”

A flash of blue in the distance caught Byleth’s eye. She hadn’t heard much over the drone of the two men’s conversation before, but now she could faintly hear shrieks of happiness in the background. As she peered closer at the gate behind Duke Gautier, she saw a kid about her age with long-ish blue hair run across the paved pathway, taunting someone behind him.

Byleth briefly considered approaching the gate to get a closer look, but before she could act on her thoughts the blue-haired boy tripped on a loose brick and fell flat on his face. She gasped, her grip on her father’s pant leg tightening in silent sympathy, but the boy sat up after a few seconds and dusted his black vest off.

“Felix, are you okay?” A slightly older voice called out.

The blue-haired boy – Felix – nodded. “I’m fine. Dimitri, don’t think you can hide from me just because I fell!” With that, he was off again.

Just as Byleth had mustered up enough courage to walk toward the gate, she felt her hand being pulled away. “Let’s go, Byleth. We should get back to camp before dark.” Her father tugged on her hand, and she reluctantly allowed herself to be led away.

The next day, Byleth sneaked away from where the mercenaries had made camp, determined to find out more about the children she had seen yesterday. As she circled the courtyard wall, she noticed a nearby tree tall enough for her to see over the wall. It had been pruned of any large low branches, but some of the thinner ones had been left alone. Byleth quickly tied her hair up and began to clamber up the branches.

She didn’t see anyone after reaching the top, and the only thing she could hear was the distant chirping of birds in the nearby forest. After about half an hour, Byleth had given up. Maybe they had gone somewhere else for the day. She hooked her foot around the tree trunk, ready to climb down, when she heard voices.

Byleth quickly scrambled up to a branch with a view of the courtyard as the children she heard playing the day before appeared from around a corner. Aside from the blue-haired boy she saw the day before, there were four other children there. Two of them had bright orange hair and seemed to be siblings, while the other two – a boy and a girl – were both blonde. 

“No fair," the younger ginger whined. "Ingrid said I didn’t have to be it this time!"

"I never said that," the blond girl – Ingrid – replied. "We've all been it today except you, Sylvain. Right, Dimitri?"

The blond boy, who Byleth assumed to be Dimitri, grumbled irritatedly. "More like Felix always wants to be it just so he can find me first."

"That's not true! Sylvain knows all the good hiding spots since he lives here! It's no fun when he wins every time." Felix protested. 

"Cut it out, all of you." Sylvain's older brother sighed. "It's barely noon and you guys have had this argument three times already. Why don't we play something else instead?"

Ingrid lit up with excitement. "Ooh, can we play the spotting game again? That was fun."

"Yeah, until Felix decided to spot something stupid like that ant on a log halfway across the garden! There wasn't even an ant there!"

"SYLVAIN." The older ginger snapped. "That's enough."

"Fiiiine, I _guess_ we can play that spotting game." Sylvain pouted. "Felix can't spot bugs anymore though."

"You're no fun." Felix retorted. "Dimitri, you start."

"Okay." Dimitri squinted around the courtyard. "I spot... a butterfly."

"I _just_ said no bugs!"

"Shut up, Sylvain." Ingrid sighed. "I see the butterfly, and it isn't a bug."

"Is it that butterfly design on the bench over there?" Felix pointed to a wrought iron bench in the shade of a large wisteria trellis. Dimitri nodded. "Okay, Ingrid, you go next."

"I spot... a bird," Ingrid decided after a few seconds.

"There it is!" Sylvain excitedly shouted, dashing toward a trimmed hedge. The bird squawked in panic and flew away in a flurry of wingbeats, much to Sylvain's disappointment. "Aw, it's gone."

"Because you spooked it, idiot." Ingrid grumbled. "Your turn, I guess."

Sylvain looked around the courtyard for a bit before he said, "I spot a blue fruit!"

"Fruit?" Ingrid glanced around the courtyard. "There aren't any fruit trees here."

"Yeah, Sylvain," Felix chimed in. "None of the trees here have fruit."

"Then what's that?" Sylvain questioned, pointing at the tree Byleth was sitting in. Right at her, in fact -

Oh no.

Byleth quickly scrambled backward, trying to climb down the tree before she could be spotted, but her foot slipped on one of the branches' peeling bark and she lost her balance, falling right on top of the courtyard wall.

"That," Byleth heard Ingrid say matter-of-factly, "is a kid."

Byleth quickly sat up, realizing that all five kids were looking at her intently, and began to scramble backwards. She couldn't be here, if her dad found out she was going to be in so much trouble, what if the mercenary band got punished for it -

"Relax, kid. Nothing's going to happen to you." Sylvain's brother smiled. "I saw you yesterday and was thinking of asking if you could join us. I'm Adrian, and these are Sylvain, Felix, Dimitri, and Ingrid."

"Why were you in the tree anyway? Isn't climbing trees for boys?" Felix asked.

Byleth bristled a little at the comment. "Why is your hair long? Isn't long hair for girls?"

"Everyone in my family has long hair!" Felix retorted. "It's cool!"

"Well, it also gets in the way of your eyes all the time," Ingrid pointed out. "Like yesterday, where you couldn't see where you were going and fell on your face."

"I saw that," Byleth ventured. "It looked like it hurt."

"It totally did." Sylvain chimed in. "He pretended he was fine at first, but he cried for ten minutes afterward."

"I didn't cry! My eyes were just sweating out all the dust!"

"You totally cried," Dimitri muttered, smirking.

"Why don't you just tie it up?" Byleth suggested.

Felix frowned. "My dad does that and it's boring. I wanna do something different."

"I suggested braiding it and you didn't like that," Ingrid said.

"That's because you braid your hair as well! It's not special if you do it too." Felix grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Why don't you tie it in a bun?" Byleth pointed to her hair. "That's what I do when I want to climb trees. Otherwise it gets stuck."

"That's... not a bad idea, actually." Felix scratched his head. "But I don't have anything to tie my hair with."

"Don't look at me," Ingrid retorted. "I don't have extra ribbons."

"Not like I would want to use your pink ribbons anyway," Felix sighed. 

"Here, you can have mine." Byleth reached up and unwound the blue ribbon tied around her hair. "I have a bunch more."

Felix frowned at the ribbon. "Don't you need it? You said your hair gets stuck on the trees..."

"It only get stuck on the way up anyway." Byleth smiled. "Come over here, I'll teach you." She carefully hung over the edge of the wall as Felix approached and wound his hair up into a bun as he frowned at his friends. "And... done! Told you it was easy."

"Hmm," Felix mused as he raised a hand to poke at his hair. "This is cool."

"Wow Felix, you look great." Adrian smiled. "Hey, do you wanna-"

"Byleth?" Everyone froze at the sound of Jeralt's voice. "Byleth, where are you?"

"Oh no, my dad's looking for me." Byleth began to panic. "I'm going to be in so much trouble."

Adrien paused for a moment, then winked. "Don't worry, we'll distract him. There's an olive tree around the corner, just pretend you've been there the whole time."

Sylvain immediately leapt to his feet. "Distractions! I'm great at distractions." He ran off in the opposite direction, followed by Adrian, Ingrid, and Dimitri. Felix turned to go as well, but turned at the last second and waved. "Thanks for the ribbon."

Byleth waved back before scrambling back up into the tree.

~~~~~

13 YEARS LATER

Something blue on the monastery's marble floor caught Byleth's eye. She stooped to pick it up. _Wow, this ribbon is really worn out. Why are none of my students capable of keeping track of their stuff anyway?_

As she was pondering this, she spotted Felix in the distance rushing toward her, hair untied. "Professor, have you - Oh! You found it."

"This?" Byleth questioned, holding up the ribbon. Felix exhaled in relief. "Yeah, that's my favorite hair tie. I really thought I'd lost it this time."

"Do keep better track of your stuff, Felix." Byleth chided. "Just yesterday I found Bernadetta's favorite plush dragon, Dedue's other earring, Dorothea's hat, and Ignatz's glasses. It's a wonder that none of you have forgotten your head somewhere yet."

"Yeah," Felix sighed. "Unfortunately I’ve also forgotten who gave me this hair tie. I've been trying to remember for years, but none of my childhood friends remember either and Sylvain's brother won't speak to me..."

"That's a shame." Byleth mused.

"Oh well, I hope I'll remember one day." Felix swept his hair up, twisting it into a bun and winding the worn ribbon around it. Just as he was about to finish, he stopped and slowly lowered his hands in realization, hair coming untied and ribbon clutched in his hands.

"...Byleth?"

**Author's Note:**

> aksjdhfdsf this is the first short story i've written in a long ass time and no one beta read it so please bear with me 
> 
> come scream about felix with me on twitter (@altoverse_)


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